A 'zitan' three-shelf bookcase (Shujia) | 紫檀三層帶抽屜大書架

Wang Shixiang, one of the major experts in Chinese furniture, had in his collection a closely related pair of bookcases, each shelf also enclosed by a lattice work gallery with conjoined double-ring struts, but made in huanghuali wood, the drawers carved with a slightly different design of hornless dragons in relief and attributed to the Ming dynasty. One of his bookcases is illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture - Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, London, 1986, pl. 131, where the author-collector comments that 'the good proportions and the tasteful decoration endow the shelves with a lightness and a beauty that are quite outstanding'.